Curvy Girls Can’t Date Best Friends by Kelsie Stelting

Eight

Seventeen Years Old

CARSON

Sarah’s parents were out at some home goods show, looking for ways to make their already perfect house more perfect. Sometimes when they were gone, we just sat on the couch and watched TV. They had a giant screen, and Sarah seemed happy to just sit tucked under my arm and just be. Which sounded perfect, but honestly, it was just kind of boring.

Sarah moved from her spot under my arm and lay down on my lap. “What do you want to do later?” she asked.

I shrugged and began playing with her hair. “We could go hang out at Callie’s?”

“Ugh. We’re always hanging out at Callie’s. All we do is watch her brother and that guy play video games.”

She wasn’t wrong. Sarah and I didn’t talk a lot nowadays. We were either watching TV or making out. And yeah, I was a guy, so I wasn’t about to complain about kissing my girlfriend, but it wasn’t all that I wanted out of a relationship. Especially not with Sarah constantly reminding me she was ready for the next step after I’d backed out last time.

We’d been set to do it on our five-month anniversary, but it just didn’t feel right. And maybe it was the Cook Family Curse at work, but it felt like there was something missing. A piece of me that was gone when Sarah and I were together, and it made me feel like a piece of crap. Because I liked Sarah. So why did it all feel wrong?

“What do you want to do instead?” I asked, trying to change the subject, to focus on something different.

“We could go hang out at Poppy’s? Maybe hot tub?”

I looked toward the ceiling, trying to hide just how awful that sounded. First of all, hot tubs were gross. Second of all, Poppy’s mom always hit on me. Always. And her daughter was no better. Poppy tried playing footsie with me in the hot tub every time Sarah wasn’t looking.

“Why don’t you ever want to spend time at my friends’ houses?” Sarah’s question was loaded, and from years of watching my parents fight, I knew we were about to get into one. I just wanted no part in it.

“I think I better head home.”

“Why?” she asked, sitting up and narrowing her eyes at me. “Because you don’t want to admit you just like hanging out at Callie’s because she’s there?”

“Of course that’s why I like hanging out there. She’s my friend.” I kept my tone measured, even though my frustration was mounting. Sarah had been getting more and more jealous of Callie for months now, no matter how many times I told her that Callie was just a friend.

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh really? So you’re saying you’ve followed Callie Copeland around like a stray dog for years and never had a crush on her?”

Each of her words hit me like a truck. Stray dog? Was that how Sarah saw me? Worse, was that how Callie saw me?

Sarah continued on her rampage like she didn’t even need to hear my answer. “Everyone thinks Callie’s so sweet and so innocent and they ignore the fact that she’s been leading you on for years!”

I grew up in a home listening to my parents fight and break things every night. Hearing my sisters sneak out to meet terrible boyfriends. Feeling terrified of continuing the Cook Family Curse when I grew up. I even took a few hits from my dad. But I would never take anyone talking bad about the Copelands.

“They’ve been there for me through everything, Sarah,” I snapped, standing up and sucking in deep breaths just to keep my cool. “And ever since we’ve started dating, Callie’s family has welcomed you into their home with open arms. She’s never said a mean word about you.”

“Answer the question, Carson.”

“What question?”

“Do you like her?”

CALLIE

I texted Carson and asked him to come over. My newest foster dog was the cutest thing I’d ever seen but in the ugliest of ways. She had scraggly brown hair, eyebrows that stuck up, big round eyes that protruded from her face, and crooked teeth that stuck out from her mouth at every angle.

Lorelei, the owner of Nature, said she didn’t know the dog’s name, but I’d started calling her Gertrude. Gertie for short.

She sat on my lap as I waited for him, letting me pet her back. When my hand stalled, she growled at me, like she was grumpy I’d gotten lazy.

“Sorry, Gert,” I said and resumed my petting. I was just so excited for Carson to meet this one. He’d absolutely loved my last foster dog, Sanderson, a Lab mix that loved nothing more than to chase his tail and eat only left shoes.

I knew Carson probably couldn’t stay all evening and play with her, but maybe he could get some good ear scratches in to give me a break before he went to hang out with Sarah.

A soft knock sounded on my bedroom door, but Gertie barked loudly all the same.

“Shh, Gertie,” I said, trying to soothe her.

Carson smiled sadly at Gertrude. “Another one? You cried for a month after Sanderson left.”

I touched my fingers to my lips and patted the picture of him and his new family on my desk. “At least I still get to see pictures of him online. And my shoes haven’t been eaten for a while.”

He came to me and lifted Gertrude from my arms. She relaxed into his grip like she’d known him her whole life.

“How did you do that?” I asked, shocked. “It took her hours to warm up to me.”

His smile seemed even sadder as he sat on my bed with her nuzzling her face in his chest. “Guess I just have a way with the ladies.”

Something was off. I wheeled my desk chair closer to him. “What’s wrong?”

He cast a sardonic smile toward my window where the blinds had been closed ever since the first time I saw him and Sarah making out in his room. I didn’t want to chance seeing where it might lead.

“Sarah broke up with me,” he said emotionlessly.

My mouth fell open, and my heart froze. “What? You guys have been dating for like nine months...”

“Eleven,” he said, scratching Gertie’s neck. She rolled onto her back, and he rubbed her belly.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You mean what’s been happening,” he said. “Ever since your brother made that comment about you putting me in the friend zone, she’s been jealous of you, thinking that I’m only dating her because you won’t date me.”

Now my heart shifted into hyperdrive. “You told her that was ridiculous, right? Joe’s always saying the dumbest stuff.”

“I would have,” Carson said, “but I would have been lying.”

I placed a hand on my desk to steady myself. “What?” My heart dreamed what my brain wouldn’t dare. Did Carson...like me?

He leaned back against the wall, absently stroking Gertie’s coarse fur. “Do you remember when we went to that pumpkin patch for Halloween last year? We dressed up as M&Ms, and you told me I was the best friend you ever had.”

I nodded slowly. That had been one of my favorite days ever. “I remember.” I’d never forget.

“I think that’s when I realized all you’d ever see me as was a friend. And I moved on. I was idiotic to think I’d met my soulmate at ten years old.”

His words sent a knife twisting through my heart. Because the feeling had been mutual, and I’d been too afraid to tell him the truth. But I could now. Now that he didn’t have a girlfriend, I would tell him that I’d been feeling the spark as well—that it wasn’t all in his head. But the second I opened my mouth to speak, he sat up and continued.

“I don’t even know if I had a crush on you as much as I did on your life. I think I just saw how great everything was here and wanted it for myself.”

My soaring heart crash-landed, shattering. “Everything here is yours,” I breathed, my voice coming out strangled. Everything I had was his.

He smiled sadly. “I know. I guess I was just afraid it might be taken away somehow?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just glad I have you as a friend.” He extended his arms for a hug.

My joints moved like cinder blocks as I rose from my desk chair and leaned into his embrace. I let myself melt into him, pretending just for a moment that this alternate universe could exist where you could meet your soulmate at ten years old and that I wasn’t sitting here, hugging my best friend, and wishing that being just friends was enough.

Gertie growled, making us split apart, tears shining in both of our eyes.

Carson wiped at his cheeks and then pet Gertie for a moment before turning his gaze back on me. “Best friends forever?”

I smiled and returned the phrase. “Best friends forever. No matter what.” Even if it breaks my heart.